When Cincinnati city workers clean up the remains of 80,000 tons of rotting meat and vegetable scraps left by a commercial composting company, the smell is going to get worse before it gets better – and that's saying something.

Residents from miles away have been complaining for months about the smell coming from the former Cincy Compost site in Winton Hills, logging 109 complaints over the last two years.

There were problems from the start. The city, which owns the land just off Interstate 75, shut the company down by not renewing its lease last summer, but the company left a mess behind.

The site is roughly covered in two feet of waste, and the city is going to clean it up. A public meeting to outline the cleanup plan is set for July 22.

City officials want people to know what's going on because stirring up the mess will smell bad. And that's with planned odor controls.

The owner of Cincy Compost told The Enquirer last August he was working to address the odor problem. The owner, Grant Gibson, said he and his partner had invested $500,000 in the business.

The city should never have allowed the problem to get as bad as it did, said Wes Cowan, owner of Cowan's Auctions, Cincy Compost's neighbor.

"Speaking on behalf of all the business owners, we are all for a process that reduces waste," Cowan said. "But this was an experiment that tried and failed."

Composting turns food waste into soil booster, which can then be used by gardeners. It should smell like soil, but when it's not done correctly – too many vegetables, too little aeration, too much moisture, not enough mixing – it can cause a compost pile to smell.

Cincy Compost charged some of Cincinnati's largest companies $20 to $25 for every drop-off, composted the waste and then sold the new product.

The land was never properly zoned for such a business, and Cowan blames the city for the problems. Many large-scale composting companies operate inside because it's nearly impossible to mask the odor from the oxidizing process.

"The city was largely at the forefront. Now they are forced to clean up what never should have happened," Cowan said.

It won't be easy or cheap.

Officials estimate finishing the composting process will cost $250,000. That's less expensive than hauling the mess to the dump, which is estimated to cost $1 million, said Larry Falkin, director of Cincinnati's Office of Environment and Sustainability.

"When we took possession of the site, we knew we were taking on an obligation to clean up the mess – both to the Ohio EPA and neighbors of site," Falkin said. "We have to be a responsible landowner."

Cincy's Compost's website is up and running as if the company were still operating. It says the company "strives to do what is right for the planet, the community and teach others around us how to do the same."

The company racked up 45 city code violations since September 2012, including odor and runoff that contaminates nearby waterways.

The Ohio EPA has issued two violation notices to the company. In April, the EPA notified Cincy Compost in a letter that it did not file an annual report, and in May the EPA notified the business and the city that the compost site was contaminating Dan's Creek, which leads to the Mill Creek.

The city is now using a sump pump to put the runoff into a collection system, which is then sent to the sewer district for proper disposal.

Pierce said the EPA is not pursuing enforcement against the city since officials are working to correct the problem.

The Enquirer was unable to contact Compost Cincy's owner and operator, Grant Gibson. Calls to the company phone number and his cellphone were not returned.

So what happened? The Enquirer talked to the EPA, city officials and nearby residents to find out.

It seemed like a great idea when Gibson approached the city wanting to lease the former city landfill for a composting company. Cincinnati didn't have one, and local businesses were clamoring for a place to get rid of waste responsibly, Falkin said.

Not only was Cincy Compost the only commercial compost company in Cincinnati, but it undercut competitors, Falkin said. At one point drop-off customers included the Castellini Group, Procter & Gamble and Kroger.

It was supposed to take in 20,000 pounds of a waste a year. It opened in July 2012 and was quickly overwhelmed.

The city estimates four times that much waste came into the site. That's equal to the amount of trash the city picks up from residents in a year.

Local business owners didn't think the city was doing enough, so they spent several thousand dollars on their own inspector, Cowan said. The inspector found the city hadn't properly zoned the property.

The owners made fixes, but it was never enough, Falkin said.

City officials shut the business down last summer by not renewing the lease. The last shipment came onto the property in October. Cincy Compost was supposed to clean up and get out.

"At the end of January we realized a lot of material was still at the site," Falkin said.

In fact, officials found they did something akin to a child moving vegetables around on a plate – they spread the waste out so it looked like less material than was really there. They should have assembled it into piles to ready it for compost.

In February, the city locked Cincy Compost officials out.

"Right up to the end they were saying they had it under control, to just give them around two or four weeks," Falkin said. "It was clear to us they weren't going to."

If you go

What: A public meeting about the plan to clean up and restore the former Compost Cincy site, located at 5656 Este Ave.

When and where: July 22; a walking tour of the Este Avenue site is at 5 p.m., followed by a 6 p.m. public forum at Elmwood Place Town Hall, 6118 Vine St.

About the meeting: People attending the meeting can review and comment on the remediation plan, hear from experts about the compost process, learn about proposed odor control measures, ask questions about future site restoration.